SCIENCE AND DEATH 275 



think of the rising and setting of the sun ; but still 

 we know that the earth really does go round the sun. 



So, with the birth and death of a man, conscious- 

 ness does most certainly seem to begin and end — 

 to be born and cease ; and yet, nevertheless, a larger 

 view assures us that this must be a delusion ; and, 

 in spite of the protest of methods of reasoning that 

 are justified by their results in the affairs of every- 

 day life, we are bound to believe the broader, deeper 

 view, and to trust the larger hope. The earth goes 

 round the sun ; there is no matter apart from con- 

 sciousness ; and there is really no death. 



Those who face the facts will reach a firm faith, 

 and will meet death with wonder and without fear, 

 believing that it is the portal of a fuller con- 

 sciousness. 



Yet to many life is good as it is, and in all a 

 love of life is implanted as a first condition of 

 survival ; and it may be asked, has science done 

 anything and can science do anything to pro- 

 long life as we know it ? 



Science has prolonged human life and is still pro- 

 longing life in many ways. We have explained 

 that death is a destructive interference with certain 

 modes of molecular machinery. The interference 

 may be either mechanical, as when a man falls on 

 his head or cuts his throat ; or chemical, as when he 

 swallows prussic acid or typhoid bacilli, or an excess 



